Page 45 - ISSUE2GRIDFINAL

GARRETTGERLOFF
SUPERSPORT
The weekend at Road Atlanta got off to a positive start for the
Yamaha rider as he immediately declared himself as one of the
quickest in the Supersport class, swapping fast lap times back and
They settled the score in qualifying and Gerloff ended up a couple of tenths
behind the Frenchman’s time, but their race pace was practically identical. In typical fashion, Gerloff set a blistering 1:28.381 near the bitter end of the qualifying session, placing him in second posi- tion on the grid in between his main rivals. In the first race, the front row immediately separated themselves from the rest of the field as they began to break away, but proceedings were halted due to a red flag incident. The race was shortened to eight laps and it turned into a sprint for the checkered flag as Gerloff and Debise cemented themselves in the top two positions after a minor mistake from JD Beach. The gloves came off in the final stages of the race as they duffed one another up in each and every braking zone, chopping and changing positions with each passing lap. The booming chorus of the crowd spurred them on as the battle for the lead came down
to last lap heroics and Gerloff dove up the inside of Debise on the penultimate lap at the end of the back straight away. In similar fashion to his qualifying strategy, the Texan put the hammer down on the very last lap and created a large enough gap to break the draft, maintaining the advantage all the way until the checkered flag as he snagged his first win of the season. The second race started in very similar fashion to the first except Gerloff found himself in third place for the opening half of the race, placing a keen eye on his teammate’s battle with the Suzuki in the lead. It wasn’t until
the second half of the race that the defending champion decided
to make a move as he forced his way past his teammate with his sights set on repeating last year’s double victory. Gerloff was able to replicate his pass from the first race as he briefly commanded the lead, but the French rider struck back immediately. They repeated the same song and dance all the way until the final lap, but this time it was Debise that came away with his hand raised, and Gerloff had to settle for second position.
forth with the M4 ECSTAR Suzuki of Valentin Debise.
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